Russian companies cut exploration
The Russian state might allow oil and gas companies to reduce exploration activities with 50 percent in 2009. That means less drilling also on the Arctic shelf.
The measure will make the companies save up to 80 billion RUB, newspaper Kommersant reports.
Russian industrial companies now for real start to feel the effects of the lower raw material prices and seek cost-cutting measures
The Federal Agency of sub-soil resources (Rosnedra) now proposes to government that the country’s oil and gas companies in 2009 be allowed to cut exploration activities by 50 percent. The companies will not be punished for not meeting exploration demands in their license agreements, the proposal reads.
Rosnedra leader Aleksandr Ledovskikh confirms that he has been addressed by four-five oil companies, which say they will have to reduce exploration. Among the companies is TNK-BP.
According to Kommersant, petroluem majors like Lukoil, Rosneft and Gazprom say they have no intention to reduce activities.
The proposed cuts in exploration come after a period with growing Russian political stress on increased mineral exploration. Russia is in major need of opening new hydrocarbon fields in order to meet growing domestic and international demands. As the biggest oil and gas fields are reaching peak production, Russian companies are increasingly forced to look towards new resources, a major part of which is located in the Arctic parts of the country.
